Tuesday, August 17, 2004

The fun with Lurch never stops

The purpose of Hastert's comments was to increase Republican pressure on Kerry over his Senate record on intelligence, a major issue for both presidential candidates. They also coincided with the first broadcast in 19 battleground states of a new Bush television ad, titled ''Intel," that highlights Kerry's attendance record and questions his commitment to intelligence spending. And in a separate press statement, the Bush side tweaked Kerry counterparts for erroneously asserting Friday that the Democrat was once vice chairman of the intelligence committee. (Former senator Robert Kerrey held that position.)

Hastert yesterday, echoing previous comments from six GOP senators, called on Kerry to authorize release of his attendance record for closed-door intelligence committee meetings during his eight years on the panel -- which Republicans expect to be spotty.

''The most basic responsibility of a lawmaker is just showing up," Hastert said. ''Based on John Kerry's attendance record on the Intelligence Committee, Kerry didn't even do that."

Again, the big media is asleep at the switch on calling Kerry's lies on the carpet. He's lying about having voting against the RX Drug Bill. Kerry claims he "proudly" voted against the Prescription Drug Bill that passed Congress last year. The little problem with that statement is that like about 90% of the other votes this session, Kerry didn't bother to vote. We're certain he WOULD have voted against it had he bothered to show up for the vote, given that it allows him to scare seniors into thinking George Bush wants them eating dog food out of trash bins. But he should at least be honest about what he didn't do. Oh wait, Kerry be honest? Sorry.

But it's all part and parcel of the Lurch we've grown to love. Kathleen Parker:

If Kerry didn’t fabricate, he exaggerated. Or misspoke. Or got confused. Or something. But whatever the differences among versions, the story is part of a larger narrative that may matter more than the details.

It is a story of naked ambition and grandiosity, the narrative of a self-absorbed man who always needed to be best and first, whether captain of the boat in Vietnam or winner of the debate in school. Who, when accidentally knocked off his snowboard as an adult fumed, “I don’t fall down.”

He’s the sort of man who thinks to take a movie camera to war to document himself for uses now known to be political; who willingly exploits his heroism in ways real heroes never do; who builds a career on disgust toward a war he later characterizes as the crowning achievement in a life that seems more resume than real.